Descriptive Essay: Learn How to Create a Vivid Experience

Describe what you see in language through a great descriptive essay.

The beauty of a descriptive essay is that these essays reach out to readers and pull them into a wonderfully imagined world. Readers don’t simply read these essays; they experience them in vivid detail. An essay of this type requires much more than just facts and figures. It requires patience, emotion and keen observation. For this reason, these essays require a lot more work and effort than other types of essays.

When you begin the task of essay writing, the first course of action is to decide on the object of your description. There are a lot of options with regards to the subject of such essays. Usually a descriptive essay will concentrate on depicting a person, a memory, a thing, a location or an experience.

The basic concept to keep in mind here is that you should base your essay on your perception or your experience. Sitting down and describing your observations is a great lesson in creativity. However, another important point to remember is that you should try to understand your reason behind writing about a particular description. Understanding this reason can lead to greater depth in your writing and can lead to an infusion of emotion and perspective that will give your essay substance.

In order to successfully create a descriptive essay, you should give a lot of importance to the five senses, i.e., create detailed experiences with the help of sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. Channelling into these senses will lead to greater detail in your writing. You will be able to show your readers what you are seeing in your mind’s eye, instead of simply telling them about it.

The fact about such essays is that they are usually rather subjective in nature. Very often, these essays tend to lean towards the creative, personal or even artistic (also see Art Essay) side of the spectrum. Given the complexity of these essays, it is always a good idea to discuss your essay ideas with your teacher before you start working on it. Like all other types of essays, these essays too have their own set of guidelines that should be followed. Some of these rules are:

When you set out to create your descriptive work of art, keep in mind some simple tips:

1. Make sure you describe something
2. Images used can be specific as well as abstract
3. Ideas portrayed can be factual and hypothetical
4. Don’t overdo the use of adjectives, adverbs, similes and metaphors
5. Get a second opinion to ensure your essay is descriptive

Although it may seem difficult to convey, a descriptive essay can sometimes be your most rewarding piece of work. Writing what you see, the way you perceive it can be an extremely liberating experience. All you need to do is focus, get in touch with yourself and bring to life in words what you have experienced.